"In May of 2009, The Columbus Dispatch reported that since 2000, Ohio State had reported to the NCAA more than 375 violations – the most of any of the 69 Football Bowl Subdivision schools that provided documents to the newspaper through public-records requests. Most of the infractions were minor and resulted in little or no punishment."

I can't blame Tressell. Lots of coaches turn a blind eye to their problems at their schools. Just look at UNC Coach Butch Davis. He's a total embarrassment to their school, is 0-4 against NC State, and practically running an agent ring at Carolina and he gets a slap on the wrist while he keeps his job.

There is no way he didn't know what kind of ****hole Marvin Austin is. He just doesn't care, because it gets him elite recruits.

edit: I could go on, but I think the point is understood... Butch Davis is the best thing to happen for NC State and Carolina should have got a death penalty.

edit2: There isn't much I hate more than OSU, so defending them should tell you how little I think of the "ethics" of college coaches.

Hell, Nick Saban may be the most honest of them all. He only went to Alabama after they gave him a longterm blowjob contract. I mean, if he walked on 40 million over 8 years, I'd have thought something was wrong with him.

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I was gone for 2 months doing things I can't talk about. It might happen again, but that's just the nature of what I do and who I am.

“I am sorry and disappointed this happened. At the time the situation occurred, I thought I was doing the right thing. I understand my responsibility to represent Ohio State and the game of football. I apologize to any and all of the people I have let down. I will grow from this experience.”

Is it just me or is anyone exactly sure of what he did? It sounds like they had a trail on the Tatt-gate stuff in April but they didn't redflag it, there was some confusion and it didn't get resolved until December. Something about emails and a federal drug trafficking in college thing too, idk. Slap on the wrist for making an honest mistake.

A school leading the nation in self reported infractions is the sign of a clean program, not a dirty one btw. OSU is a hugantic school with lots of sports and as many student athletes as any other in the country.

This is pretty much nothing. The issue was self-reported in early February and will be a self-imposed 2 game $250k penalty.

There is noway in hell the NCAA will make it worse.

So a lawyer sends JT an email with 2 players being under Federal investigation due to the sting on the tattoo parlor guy. It sounds like he talked to the players, but not to the university legal team at the time.

Turns out it was 6 players and that he should have talked to legal at OSU so they could have followed the proper procedure.

I like how the self-reporting schools get **** on and the really dirty ones get away with whatever payola schemes they want to. The NCAA is a farce.

I feel like something is wrong in the universe that I am defending tOSU, but...

Let's say you are Jim Tressell. Your best players come to you and say "Coach, we are going to break some minor NCAA rules." What do you say to them?

The options are
1. "Don't do it - I'll have to report you." At the same time, you realize they are poor and could use the money. You are stuck between a rock and a hard place here. If you do report them, then you will be looked down at by the players as well as hurt your football team. If you don't report them then you are cheating as I say below.
2. "Go ahead, I'll try to make sure you don't get caught." Then you are a cheat.
3. "Don't tell me." This makes you a cheat as well. This is creating an atmosphere of non-compliance.

There is no good way to handle this if you are Jim Tressell. The only people who could do the right thing are the players - who should have never went through with this.

As a complete aside (though maybe slightly relevant), I think if this were to cause Tressell to retire at the end of the year, that the next head coach of Ohio State football would be Urban Meyer. I've had that prediction since he tried to retire from Florida the first time and I'm sticking with it.

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I was gone for 2 months doing things I can't talk about. It might happen again, but that's just the nature of what I do and who I am.

The suspensions moved to this season instead of the bowl game in January raised some red flags with me, I posted this when I clicked a link & read about the 375 violations in 10 yrs.

Kind of overwhelming & difficult to ignore. Self reporting that many of them must have required a couple of fulltime Sports Info interns this last decade.

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I think if this were to cause Tressell to retire at the end of the year, that the next head coach of Ohio State football would be Urban Meyer.

Agree with the 1st p/o this. Not so much the 2nd part, Meyer may have been scared into early retirement for a very good reason, heart attacks are serious, & being a HC in a high profile BCS program is one of the highest stress jobs there is. I think his cardiologist in Florida advised Meyer to retire & live longer -- he's taking that advice.

If all he gets is the 2 game ban and $250 fine.. just shows how much more of a sham the BCS is (although the lack of bowl-game suspensions and Newton pretty much handled that last year.)

He knew they broke the rules and did nothing at best, tried to keep it hush at worst. Absolute opposite of what is expected of a head coach. Should lose his job.

Stop talking about football.

This is killing me. Tress is pure class and I hate to see him get labeled as a sleeze ball by so many. He truly is remorseful and while I don't idsagree with his punishment, I am disappointed by what this will do to his legacy.

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<@JBond> And Dg, you'd waste it on corndogs
<@JBond> So you get no 5 dollars
<+DG> how is buy one get one free wasting?

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<+njx9> i'm pretty sure your people still eat boots in north korea, bantx. they don't know what vegetables are.

If all he gets is the 2 game ban and $250 fine.. just shows how much more of a sham the BCS is (although the lack of bowl-game suspensions and Newton pretty much handled that last year.)

He knew they broke the rules and did nothing at best, tried to keep it hush at worst. Absolute opposite of what is expected of a head coach. Should lose his job.

whatever. he said the whole thing was him not knowing what to do with information that was told to be kept confidential and instead of going to a university lawyer or whatnot he kept it quiet. honest mistake by the coach who is the posterboy for how to run a program the right way.

whatever. he said the whole thing was him not knowing what to do with information that was told to be kept confidential and instead of going to a university lawyer or whatnot he kept it quiet. honest mistake by the coach who is the posterboy for how to run a program the right way.

Teach those young men that they need their parents to solicit and receive payment. And that they all need to keep their mouths shut no matter what.

Ensure that those that are too stupid to get into college are honoring their paychecks and mean to attend the big boy school while they wait out a few years at the preferred JUCO.

Let the players know when roster cuts are occurring so that they can step up their game.

That's what the NCAA is showing people what to do. Self-reporting is only going to make things worse.

In all seriousness, JT is no saint. The people that think he is are delusional. Do I think he has more integrity than most of his peers? Definitely. But no college football coach is clean. It's a terribly dirty sport.

I just can't take any of this infraction stuff seriously anymore. It is so unevenly and unfairly doled out that it's a joke.

I'm not saying he is worse(or better) than certain SEC coaches( including Chizik), but enough of this Tressel is a saint ********(which you conceded but most tOSU fans wont) and that he is on a different level which has been put on up to this point.

I'm not saying he is worse(or better) than certain SEC coaches( including Chizik), but enough of this Tressel is a saint ********(which you conceded but most tOSU fans wont) and that he is on a different level which has been put on up to this point.

I agree. In Tressel's defense, I do think he has the right moral compass vs a lot of other coaches, at least wrt his players and their well being. He does do things that are better for the kids than are better for the program.

However, JT is FOS here when using the Feds as an excuse. I think he is FOS when acting naive about how some players magically have nice cars and whatnot. I guess it's a dirty part of the game that they all seem to play, but it's a sham. He's a politician. No matter how nice or pointed in the right direction that they seem, they always know how to game a system and come out ahead.

I truly think setting up a professionalized system of some sort gets rid of most of this ****. It's illegally professional now. Just formalize it and be done.

What the ****? There absolutely is a good way to handle it. Make sure your players don't do **** that's against the rules. That's part of the job description.

I love how most OSU fans are angrier at the NCAA for enforcing their rules and at Yahoo! for reporting the news. Can't really say I'm surprised, though.

I remember the angst that UM fans had over being sanctioned for extra practice. Rules are rules.

Anyone angry over Y! is an idiot, the news was merely leaked a few days early. The violation had been filed February 3rd.

The thing is, the more that I think about it, the more disappointed I get in the OSU AD department as a whole. Excuse making and a whole bunch of BS being shoveled.

I think a lot of OSU fans are feeling a version of the following. For the psychos that think JT can do no wrong, they are going to be slow coming to their senses, but at least they got jolted. The rest have some common sense and are just becoming more jaded at the whole sordid affair.

The making of excuses. From the time this Tat5 thing hit the news, the thing that has bothered me the most with regard to the whole thing has been the excuses put forth by people like Gene Smith and Jim Tressel.

-"the times were tough, players needed money". Total BS excuse that has been sanctioned by Ohio State. Pryor is driving around a 2008 Dodge Charger and has a flatscreen, a PS3, and an XBox in his apartment.

-"the kids didn't know the rules". Total 100% BS. Having worked in an athletic dept, there is NO WAY. Another BS excuse sanctioned by OSU.

-"I was worried about their safety". Total BS IMO. Sorry, but I'm not buying this and I'm filing under the growing list of BS excuses put forth by members of the OSU AD.

This is a disturbing thing IMO and I fear that it reflects a real problem within the culture of the A.D. I would much prefer they would tell it like it is:

The players knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it anyway. They let greed and selfishness cloud their judgment, like so many kids. The head coach was made aware of this months ago and he did not tell anyone so that the players would not face an investigation with regard to compliance which could eventually result in suspension. They will all be punished because that is not acceptable behavior at Ohio State.

A school leading the nation in self reported infractions is the sign of a clean program, not a dirty one btw. OSU is a hugantic school with lots of sports and as many student athletes as any other in the country.

So if i continually break the law then turn myself into the police makes me a good person?

I remember the angst that UM fans had over being sanctioned for extra practice. Rules are rules.

What I didn't like about the Rosenberg article in the Free Press was the half-truths and the fact that he admitted to not telling Je'Ron Stokes and Brandin Hawthorne what his piece was about and instead leading them to believe that it was for something else. Rodriguez and his staff broke the rules, trivial as they may have been in that case, and they deserved to be punished.

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I think a lot of OSU fans are feeling a version of the following. For the psychos that think JT can do no wrong, they are going to be slow coming to their senses, but at least they got jolted. The rest have some common sense and are just becoming more jaded at the whole sordid affair.

Schlabach (who never misses a chance to take a shot at anything Big 10-related) actually summed up the Buckeye point of view pretty well. As long as Tressel keeps beating Michigan, he's a made man.

Well put. I'm tired about hearing how these kids from the "hood" can't afford anything and are put to work for little to no pay. Like I've said before, I managed to survive in college without a scholarship through loans and all that fun ****. I certainly am not the only one. These guys can survive just fine with their room, board, tuition, books, meals, gym, etc... paid for.